The Spoils of Eden

Title: THE SPOILS OF EDEN
Author: Linda Lee Chaikin
Publisher: Moody Press
Nay 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8024-3749-5
Genre: Inspirational/historical

Rafe Easton rescued an abandoned baby from certain death on the leper’s island in Hawaii. The baby seems to be leprosy free, but the doctors in Honolulu believe that Rafe is playing with danger and must return that baby to the islands immediately.

Eden Derrington has loved Rafe since childhood, but with them going in different directions and being unwilling to give up her dreams to follow his, she reluctantly returns Rafe’s ring. Now she is the one chosen to deliver the bad news to Rafe, that he must return the baby boy to the leper’s island.

Yet, Eden wants to work alongside her father, trying to find a cure for leprosy. She is willing to risk a life of privilege to work with the forgotten people. Yet, what if she falls victim to the dreaded disease that took her mother? Will Rafe even wait for her while she fulfills her dream?

THE SPOILS OF EDEN is book one in Ms. Chaikin’s newest series The Dawn of Hawaii. Ms. Chaikin is certainly talented in prose, painting such a vivid word picture of the setting that the reader can literally see the exactly blue of the sky and know how many clouds floated in sight. The setting is very beautifully portrayed, but as a result it does slow the story down considerably, making it almost drag at times.

Still, Eden is a very believable character, loving and kind, and Rafe also. I felt kind of bad for them putting their dreams together aside so they could pursue their own separate dreams, and I hoped that it would all work out for them. The story is set in a real time period of Hawaii’s history, with some very real people appearing as characters in the book. Ms. Chaikin included a directory of who people are, whether they were real or imaginary, and a map of the islands. She also included a glossary of Hawaiian terms. $13.99. 349 pages.